Download: The Final Year â€” â€˜The West Wing this is notâ€™

As the current procession of White House appointments and dismissals continues, Greg Barker’s documentary is a timely reminder that there are clear-headed and articulate staffers out there.

Only 18 months ago they were very much still on the inside, representing and helping shape President Obama’s policies. We follow adviser Ben Rhodes and United Nations ambassador Samantha Power, and are given “backstage” access to both John Kerry and Obama himself in the last days of their tenure. The Final Year is at its best when the subjects let their guard down a touch to vent about the US media or the intransigence of certain global powers.

But snippets of the staffers’ private lives seem inauthentic and add very little — The West Wing this is not.